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I woke up today with an unusual thought on my mind: that of how completely and continuously we are integrated with our environment through the simple act of breathing.
Why do we breathe? It seems to confer organisms no particular advantage that they must rely on aerobic metabolism to survive. We could have come into being a different way. Yet every living creature I can think of relies on some variation of this basic process: the intake and expelling of air, water or some other substance as a sustainer of life.
To breathe reminds me of how inseparable I am from the world around me. It is not even just that “I” rely on this world to live; the very life processes that go on in my body rely on the action of outside elements, such as oxygen. Cut off completely from all that is external to me, I would die within, quite literally, a matter of seconds. The simple act of breathing renders “my body” part of one giant body; for if our body is all that is inside a certain boundary, how can the constant flow of oxygen into my lungs and bloodstream, and carbon dioxide out therefrom, not be considered “part of my body”? Which part of my red blood cells is part of me: the whole, or only that part that does not consist of oxygen from outside?
As I see it, it’s all part of my body. If the oxygen is “less my body” because it enters and leaves so quickly, are my skin cells, which rapidly die and are replaced, or the blood cells themselves, which live for an average of four months, also not my body? It seems to me that breathing is one way in which the fact that we exist as part of a giant networked organism is conveyed to us.
Maybe eating is another. Though it can be argued that a lot of the food we eat is taken from nature nonconsensually, some food is created specifically for the purpose of supporting life. Consider, for example, the fruit, which, unlike some plants that defend themselves from predators by tasting unpleasant, secreting poison, or dressing themselves in barbs and thorns, is specifically designed to appeal to the senses and to nourish the animal body, and which is in many cases cut off deliberately from its body (the tree or bush) when in a perfect condition to be eaten. The fruit, of course, and the consumption thereof, is an essential reproduction strategy for the plant; the seeds contained within survive their trip through the animal’s digestive system and pass unharmed out the other end, far from the host plant and already surrounded by their own natural fertiliser.
Sounds unpleasant, I know, but it works for the plant, and it keeps the animal alive. It’s hard to argue that the fruit was not invented by nature for the purposes of being eaten by animals, and thus is an entirely guilt-free food. We are meant, at least at this stage in evolution, to interact with our environment through eating, and to this end nature has given us sweet-tasting, nutritious foods that fulfil their purposes, both for the plant and for the animal, only when consumed.
Think again of the function of the fruit, too: reproduction. When an animal carries a fruit within its stomach, it acts practically as a surrogate mother for the plant. It’s quite unusual, when you think about it, and another example of the intricate interconnectedness of all life. We are, in many ways that we don’t even recognise, fathers and mothers, daughters and sons, to many other things on this planet, in this universe. Many factors aided in our creation, and we will aid in the creation of many other things. That’s not just fluff: it’s simple scientific fact. Yet it is also a wondrous thing. Why should we not marvel at it?
Tellurian’s been busy, so here’s guest blogger Paleni again!
I’ve heard it claimed that there are five Japantowns in the US, although Wikipedia doesn’t think two of them even deserve that title.
Being sort of a connoisseur of foreign cultures and very nearly a Japanese minor in college, I go to such places every time I get the chance, and it turns out that now I’ve seen them all. So I thought I’d present to you, the potentially curious, a review and ranking of all the Japantowns in the US, unless there’s another one that has escaped my notice.
New York City, NY
Rank: C
It may be a surprise to some, but America’s largest city has the tiniest, least-existent Japantown in the country. Until someone told me so, I didn’t even know that anyone considered it a “Japantown” at all– I thought it was just a Kinokuniya and an upscale dessert bakery. In fact, it is just a Kinokuniya and an upscale dessert bakery. It is still worth visiting, though; the Kinokuniya is the largest in the US by a significant margin. And the manju (dessert pastry) shop is expensive but very tasty and stocked with a whole lot of choices. Anyway, it’s definitely worth going to if you’re in NYC, but it doesn’t really make you feel like you’re in Japantown at all. It’s right next to Rockefeller Center and feels very Americanized.
Portland, OR
Rank: C
Portland’s Japantown is a grocery store. And there are some Japanese video stores across the street. It’s a very large Japanese grocery store, though, with a tiny Kinokuniya attached to the back, and it has not only food, but also random imports like tea sets and yukata and bento boxes and statues. The only reason it wins out over New York is that inside the grocery store, you can actually feel surrounded by Japanese culture (even if it is just the culture of a large and strangely-stocked grocery store); it seems like it caters to actual Japanese people. I get more of a feel of being in Japan from that store, but still, it’s a grocery store, with bonus Kinokuniya attachment. I’m not sure if you can really call that a Japantown per se, but you do feel like you’re surrounded by it, so maybe it counts.
San Francisco, CA
Rank: B
San Francisco’s Japantown is an indoor shopping mall, with a monument or two outside. It’s a massive building that I think is owned by Kinokuniya, although they just have a smallish store and a stationery shop. I really do feel like I’m in an upscale Japanese shopping mall when I’m in there, and it’s quite nice. I haven’t had the time to explore it as much as I’d like, since all my visits there have been cursory and rushed. Someday I want to go to San Francisco and spend my time just looking around in there. Last time, the potted trees inside had little strips of coloured paper with children’s wishes tied to them; I wonder if it was something from an elementary school nearby, or whether there was actually an event in the mall where kids wrote their wishes.
San Jose, CA
Rank: B
An actual town! My goodness! With signs pointing to it, and historic plaques, and banners on the streets. Well, street. Because it’s basically just one street. Apparently there are festivals there, though, and classes on ikebana or traditional drumming, and there are all kinds of shops– from ordinary things like hair salons and travel agencies and groceries to Japanese import merchandise shops. There’s this one place that has beautiful kimono fabric, and if I had a spare arm and a leg to pay for it, I’m sure they could make me a splendid kimono. Just looking around there is nice. There are a couple of stores with anime merchandise, although the selection is limited and they are closed on arbitrary days of the week. There’s a shop that sells various imports like kitchen items (I got my onigiri maker and bento box here), Japan-related books, greeting cards, chopsticks and chopstick holders, little zodiac charms… I’ve really found this store super-useful. There are also good restaurants in the area, and a famous manju (dessert pastry) shop that I would recommend, although it’s smaller and more limited than NYC’s. And there is a place that makes fresh tofu that’s about half the price of packaged tofu in the grocery store, and was made that very same day it’s sold. The main thing about San Jose’s Japantown is that it doesn’t really wake up until the afternoon, so a morning visit may disappoint with half the stores closed.
Los Angeles, CA
Rank: A
Okay, Little Tokyo in LA wins. It’s an actual little district, not just one street, and it doesn’t feel like the whole of it was carefully constructed to provide a “Japantown experience”, although there are a couple of plaza areas that, independently, probably were. One is Kinokuniya’s (of course), and one is a sort of maze-like hallway that has a diverse mixture of shops. They had everything from a dusty time-travelling electronics-and-miscellany store with merchandise dating from the early 1980’s to today, and a polished Sanrio store of cavity-inducing cuteness that was brimming with giveaways, lottery games, free stickers, and someone in a giant Hello Kitty suit. There were shops that specialised in anime merchandise, spilling over with gaijin anime fans, that had some things I wouldn’t normally expect to see like a small selection of cosplay clothing. There were supermarkets and shops that had strange mixtures of imports, air fresheners and hair accessories, and small corners of random anime merchandise with no consistency. There was a vistors’ center with an ikebana exhibit done by a local ikebana club, and an embassy, and a Japanese-American historical museum that I hear is worth a visit. The downside to it is that it doesn’t feel like a place mostly visited by Japanese people; I suppose it’s so large and well-known that it attracts a lot of others. However, there is quite a lot to see and do.
And, for the really culturally curious, check out the flipside: Osaka’s Americamura (Americatown) is a startling and fascinating look at how the Japanese see America. Apparently it’s a cross between 70’s disco and a FUBU store.
